Friends of Maryhill Park and the Maryhill Park Residents Association

New sparrow habitat to be created in Maryhill Park

As part of the RSPB’s “Giving Nature a Home” project, they will be creating a sparrow habitat in Maryhill Park. This is in partnership with the Friends of Maryhill Park, Glasgow City Council’s Land and Environmental Services (L.E.S.), and the community.

by around 60% in rural areas. It has been shown that in urban areas, young sparrow chicks often suffer from a lack of insects and other invertebrates in their diet. This leads to their poor development and survival, boosting local numbers of invertebrates can alleviate this.

In response to this, the RSPB ran the “Bringing House Sparrows Back to London’s Parks and Green Spaces” project, to identify the best habitat type for invertebrates, and by extension, house sparrows.

Wildlife seed plot in Maryhill Park

Wildlife Seed Plot

The research established that wildlife seed plots were an excellent habitat for invertebrates and the RSPB has been identifying sites within Glasgow suitable for wildlife seed plots. One of these sites is in Maryhill Park. The area identified is near to the playpark, and it will be seeded with a mix that will provide a fantastic display of flowers. This should all happen before the end of April 2015. The site will be maintained by the Friends of Maryhill Park, with guidance from the RSPB and L.E.S.

One thought on “New sparrow habitat to be created in Maryhill Park”

My older brother Ronnie and myself visited Maryhill Park on 30 March 2015 – we came to scatter our dad’s ashes – John Joseph Burns born 1921 – he lived in Cumlodden Drive, Maryhill, with his parents Maggie and James until the outbreak of World War II, afterwhich, he married a girl from Gateshead, Tyne & Wear and brought up a family of Scots-Geordies!!

Our Grandfather, James Burns was Park-keeper in the 1930’s-1950’s, having formerly owned a local grocery shop which failed to prosper, Grandfather James and his wife (our Grandmother “Ma”) Maggie were devout Catholics and brought up children James, Pat (Patricia), May (Mary), John, Tom (Thomas), Harry, Jo (Josephine) and Ronnie (Ronald) – these 2015 days, Harry survives – a handsome, proud, Glasgow laddie in his 80’s.

The volunteers at Maryhill Park were so kind and helpful to my brother and myself in March this year when we brought our dad home – so when you see daffodils at the top of the walk – think of John Joseph Burns of Cumlodden Drive and smile …… all the Burns’ family had that smile – that Glasgow Smile.